I've got a quiet morning grocery shopping today, so not much else after that. I still haven't sorted out Harry the Dog yet. Hopefully, I will on the weekend.

Songbird - goodness, that's not nice weather for cycling. At least it's good exercise. Yes, dogs are a big commitment. When we got Harry I wasn't worried about him on the holidays because it was a foregone conclusion he would go to my parents' place. I never imagined something would prevent that.

marielle - yeah, I don't like those bills either, but this has been a good car, so I think it's worth the money.

BELATED BIRTHDAY WISHES TO SONGBIRD SUSAN!!!Sorry I wasn’t here yesterday to wish you on the day. Imagine that I am singing this to you: Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday, Dear Susan, Happy Birthday to You!Hello Everyone!

Caryn visited me in Minneapolis on Friday, just for the day. I was honored! Needless to say, it was SO FUN!!! I took her out to breakfast at my favorite Cuban restaurant, went to my neighborhood Starbucks, showed her my quaint house, took her to BD2, followed by a cocktail lunch in the lounge at the theatre, and then gave her a quick driving tour of the city before heading back to the airport. Anyone else want to come and visit?

We have SNOW!! Nearly a foot of snow – it’s so beautiful. This reminds me of how fakey that scene is in the movie where they’re driving to Denali and it’s the shot of the rear of the black Volvo driving on a snow covered road. It NEVER looks like that when you drive on snow. There are absolutely no tire tracks. If it were that smooth, it would mean it was iced over and the car would go flying off the edge of the mountain. They must have used a green screen? My Northern sisters, help me out here! Kayla?

Songbird – What a fun evening eating at two restaurants! I’m glad your hubs liked the movie. I think helping out with the PTA equivalent would be an excellent way to get involved in the school. I had such a fun time when my kids were in elementary school. Things changed in middle school and high school – they don’t really want the parents around when the kids get older. The Pink Gorilla thing was so funny! Kids are so cute.

Hi Ginnie! I love to see that black font! I’ve been gone a few days too.Lulu – I’m so happy you’re ready to make an appointment with your doctor! Keep us posted, each step of the way. That baby’s going to have lots of Godmothers! Sean – You need to finish BD1 and tell us what you thought. I’m sorry you had that bad experience with the sausage. Poor thing! I usually can’t tolerate food like that either, but I just get indigestion. I can’t handle any fast food.

Amanda Beth – Wow – you’ve moved around a bit. Was it for work or school? What kind of work do you do?Lynne – Regarding the hair – I think it really is a snafu. I just saw the movie again on Friday, and Bella’s entrance in that scene looks like she’s late to the party, like an afterthought. That’s OK. I’ll forgive them. I’d be really annoyed with my mechanic if that happened too! What a hassle. AND lots of money! Christmas Barbeque – sounds very foreign to me here in the Winter Wonderland of Minnesota.Tracy – That Christmas girls night out sounds like so much fun! And very relaxing I hope you enjoyed the mother/daughter time on Saturday and that your hubs picked up on your “hint”. We plan on getting our tree the last day the Boy Scout lot is open – Sunday.Sarah – I cried when I found out my car was totaled so I certainly understand. We really do get attached to our cars. If it makes you feel any better, I easily became attached to the new car after a couple of weeks. Still miss that VW Fresco Green Passat 5-speed Wagon, though. *sniff* And I didn’t even name it like you did yours! Bye bye Bella! Do you think you will name your next car “Bella2”? I got an Eclipse ornament from a friend, but I don’t think it’s a Hallmark. They do look a little strange.Marielle – You poor thing, living in Holland, and not liking snow! I think it’s beautiful. I will agree that it is horrible for commuting. 5 days of work left for 2012? You Dutch get too many vacation days! Sorry, I’m only teasing you.Desiree – I do like those ornaments that look like the book covers. I hope you can talk to someone about the thing that is bothering you. It might not be very productive to keep it to yourself. Perhaps your bestie? A female family member? A counselor? Us? I hope you’re not suffering too much.Caryn – You wished for snow when you were here and we sure did get it – about a foot of it! The problem is, you left too early so you couldn’t really enjoy it! And yes, hubs shoveled 10+ inches of snow on our driveway by hand. I only helped a little. Isn’t he amazing?

Mel – The jam tarts sounds delicious. I really should try making a rich Christmas cake sometime. I think it may be too late to start now for this year.

See you tomorrow!

EDIT - Forgot to say hi to Naterpie! I love snow, even though it is a pain to drive in. Last year we didn't have snow, and it was very depressing. We all started to worry about Global Warming. (We usually have snow from December through March here in Minnesota). So now that we have a lot I'm really happy. It's just dull gray and brown without it.

Hope all of you are well. I was in the middle of typing a rather thorough megapost last night, and inadvertently deleted my entire post. I was just too mentally drained and frustrated to attempt another one, so I read a bit of fanfiction instead and headed to bed.

We had a busy weekend where I felt like I didn't accomplish much of anything, at least as far as Christmas is concerned. I did enjoy our girls' time with my coworkers Friday night, and it was nice to spend time together outside of work. My daughter and I were away from home about twelve hours Saturday at her basketball tournament. The team lost their three games playing against some stiff competition, but gained good experience in preparation for their upcoming middle school basketball season. We still don't have our Christmas tree as Hubs and I agreed it probably wasn't the best idea to put a live tree on top of the rental car and risk scratching the paint. We finally organized and moved our clothes into the downstairs bedroom closet....so no more clothes in the living room. I also sorted through some clothes and stuff in an upstairs closet I haven't worn or used in ages and have them ready for donation or disposal, and made chocolate cream cheese cupcakes from scratch Sunday night. I guess I accomplished a few tasks over the weekend, even if I have yet to complete all of my Christmas shopping or wrap the first present.

Susie~ I'm go glad you and Caryn had a wonderful time during her visit. It sounds like you made the very most of her brief time in the city. I'd love to see pictures of your snow and know you're happy to have it. We have some old family friends coming to visit my Mom later this week...they're from Ham (sp?) Lake, Minnesota and had about 20 inches of snow today. When will Sonny Boy be home for Christmas break? The scene you mentioned with Bella's hair? I actually loved it and even mentioned to my coworkers during the movie that she looked like "human Bella". I thought she looked cute with her hair a little messy, and it made me somewhat nostalgic for Bella from the previous movies....like the way she looked with her hair in the ball cap during the baseball game in Twilight. I like to think that as beautiful and glamorous as VampBella is, she would still retain a sense of original Bella who would scoff at the idea of Alice encouraging her to wear fancy dresses and stilletos all the time....if that makes any sense. Our minivan is supposed to be ready Wednesday or Thursday, so it looks like we'll be getting our tree this weekend too....maybe catch some hot deals.

Sarah~ Those Twilight ornaments did look a little creepy, and I prefer yours. Maybe you can post a picture when you've finished them? You could probably sell them yourself, for a little extra money. Have you heard any news about your car? I know it's emotionally and mentally exhausting dealing with the paperwork, the insurance adjustors, the body shop, etc.....but hang in there. One day soon all this stress will be a distant memory.

Songbird~ Happy Belated Birthday to you! I'm glad you enjoyed your dinner(s) out with hubs. I'm sorry they didn't need you at work after all. Be careful and try to stay warm biking in that frigid weather. My MIL makes a delicious tasting baklava. My hubs loves it and I agree that it tastes good, but am more of a chocoholic, myself.

Lynne~ I hope your neighbor will be able to keep Harry while you're away, and I'm so sorry it won't work out for him to stay with your parents. I'm glad you enjoyed your time at the barbecue, and especially having the chance to chat with other authors.

Marielle~ I'm right there with you about Mondays....strongly dislike them. Once I make it through Monday, I'm usually good for the week. That's great that you only have a few more days of work. That should give you some time to paint, pack, etc. in preparation for the move, assuming everything is still moving ahead with the new house.

Sean~ That's good news that you'll work so many days this week....it's probably nice to have a little extra money in your pocket for Christmas.

Desiree~ Thanks for all your hard work getting the Halfway House Library organized over on the Facebook page. I hope things are okay with you, and remember that we're always here with a listening ear and a shoulder to lean on, if you need it.

How is life?! Here everything is going okay.I’m so busy in my head with the new house that I don’t even realize that it’s almost Christmas. I’m even forgetting I should get a bday present for my brother.

Anyway I am very busy at work and should get to work so a quick catch up.

Sean, going 17 straight with out having time to sit down is very tiring of course. I thought you mend that you didn’t have a nap during that 17 hours. I hate those day that I can’t even have a few minutes to chat at work. Today is like that. I have to finish up a report. Do an ICT check and have a meeting for the rest of the day…I’ll be exhausted by the time I get home.

Susan, did you get snow over night? Here we only got rain but it’s so cold that some of the road are very slippery. I don’t know if it’s going to snow today. I hope not as I went to work with the car.Yes I have 3 weeks off after this week. Even if the move would have gone through I would still take the days off… I’m exhausted mentally and need some rest…

Lynne, yeah as long as the car is worth it it’s better to pay the bill… but that still if painful.

Hey Ginnie!!!

Susie, nearly a foot!!!!! That’s 30 cm right??? Sweet lord… that would be my worst nightmare. Right now I don’t have patience with snow…Well, actually I was surprised that I had so many “free” days left. With the Chicago trip and the premiere week I thought I didn’t have that much left. But because Christmas falls on a good day, in de middle of the week I only need a few days to get a whole week off… same with New Years eve…I honestly think that we in Holland got that part right. I feel like you guys in the US are mistreated and treated as slaves for only getting a few days off a year…

Tracy, yes that was the idea of the few weeks off work. Though I’m still not sure when exactly we are going to get the key. The bank forgot to send in some documents to the estate agent so probably it will be 2 days later.

Alright that’s it for today…Tomorrow I have more time to reply

These violent delights, have violent endings...Like fire and gunpowder, they consume what they kiss

Hopefully this will be the last flyby post for a while. I've felt sort of neglectful of being here and the FB page recently with work and being sick and other things that have gone on.

Songbird: Happy belated birthday. I don't remember it popping up in my FB feed, so that's how I probably missed it. I did get a 15 minute break at work on that day, but it didn't do much for me staying up since 1:00 the previous night. At least now I can get back to a normal schedule.

Marielle: I meant that I went 17+ hours without sleep or any substantial rest of any kind. I did plenty of sitting, but it's not exactly rest when you're trying to keep watch for phone calls and people who walk up to the front desk. I did get a 15 minute break at work, but I spent it reading, since it wasn't worth it to try and sleep.

Susie: I think it's the type of sausage--it sort of reminded me of some sausage my mom got that was pretty god awful. I can eat fast food OK, but I know not to get any of that stuff again.

I'll try and finish BD1 soon, but it's not likely to happen very soon because I work all week. Probably over the weekend I'll try and finish it.

Tracy: It would be nice if I could get paid more, but my checks, when working a normal week, will come to $150 or so when I get paid every two weeks.

Everyone: I do work the rest of this week, which shouldn't be a big problem, since they are short days. Tomorrow, I'll try and get some of the stuff for Christmas dinner at Dollar General or Walmart, and I'll try and pick up some (non-alcoholic) egg nog, too. It's a Dutch food item, and it's associated with Christmas. And I know that it's a million bricks short and about a year late, but as I promised Susie, I'll post a review of BD1 once I get it finished.

Also tomorrow, I'll get the second chapter of Bio-Booster Armor Twilight finished.

As for my day today, I pretty much got to do nothing of note at work. I only had a handful of phone calls, and only a little bit of shredding and a few other small things to do. Nice to have a day like that, especially after the past couple of weeks.

Lynne, no, it was NOT nice weather for cycling, but at least it was good exercise.I set my facebook to not display my birthday, so no, you wouldn't have seen it on there.

Thank you, Susie! Your imaginary singing was just as beautiful as your real singing!Your day with Caryn sounds like SO much fun! I wish I could come visit!The snow...I think you're right about the snow...it's also too pristine white. Snow that's been driven on like in BD2 is dirty, slushy, not that beautiful smooth white blanket.

Tracy, sorry about the tournament....I guess you can't win them all. I hope she's not too disappointed.Would you possibly share your recipe for chocolate cream cheese cupcakes? I am quite the chocolate fan myself, but baklava seems to be an exception. I made a Mississippi mud pie to take to my in-laws house for my birthday, but they don't eat things like pie for dessert. Stuff like that is to eat with their coffee. They thought it was weird that I didn't serve them the pie with coffee, that I considered it dessert. They didn't say anything until I was serving it after dinner and they were like "Oh, we didn't think we were going to get anything...we wondered about it when we had coffee." They would normally have a cookie with their coffee but apparently they didn't because they were waiting for me to serve them the pie, and I never did. To them, dessert is yogurt, or maybe ice cream for a special occassion. You won't find cake or pie on a restaurant dessert menu. The Greek restaurant has Baklava and Italian restaurants will have Tiramisu, but other than that, the dessert menu consists of Ice cream. I figured...I've been here for 10 years, they KNOW if I'm going to have dessert, I want it to be something truly sinful. I was surprised they were expecting the pie with coffee. I even TOLD my MIL I had made a mud pie for dessert and asked her if she had ice cream. They keep expecting me to do things the Dutch way because I live here and just not be American anymore. But that's not me. I want something gooey for dessert...usually something that involves chocolate...so those cupcakes sound REALLY yummy.

Marielle, no we didn't get snow. It's COLD though!Happy Birthday to your brother! When is his birthday? You are such a great sister...my brother didn't even say happy birthday to me much less get a gift!Enjoy your 3 weeks off! Hubs has the last 2 weeks off...I'm really looking forward to it!

Sean, how are you feeling now? It sounds like you are getting more hours at work...that's great! I hope you keep liking it. It seems to be a really positive change for you, not just because of the money, which I'm sure you are happy about, but to have something to do and have contact with some people other than your family. You seem to be happier.